In Search of Fresh Worlds: Collaborative Poem (Renga Style)

The Writers' Block discord houses a channel specifically devoted to Renga—a type of collaborative poetry from which haiku is derived. One day participants can propose a verse and the next day we vote on which verse becomes part of the poem. Then we continue from there. Our first attempt has resulted in the following.

In Search of Fresh Worlds

Green skies rise—
terraform complete.
Mushrooms bloom.

A child radiates innocence
counting fireworks in the sky.

Eyes reflect
burning fireflies
as they dance.

Bare feet brushed
by cold, untrodden grass.

Twin suns rise
on opposite horizons—
The hard work begins.

One sun grows our wheat,
its false mirror, our depravity.

Hunger plagues...
All must do their part
until the twins set.

What roams the land
when darkness falls?

Unnoticed it comes,
for who dares to speak
when madness hits.

Moss-laden bones.
there lie our heroes.

Night comes...
Before long,
it rains.

Clouds of fungal spores rise...
In search of fresh worlds.

Contributors

@anikekirsten
@bex-dk
@damianjayclay
@diebitch
@nobyeni
@quoll
@tinypaleokitchen
@thinknzombie

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It was soon after I was introduced to dbooster that we got talking about Japanese poetry. I’d been lucky enough in the past to attend workshops on haiku and a full traditional renga. I thought it would be a fantastic idea to set one up as an ongoing community event and it turned out he had been thinking the same thing for quite some time.

It’s been exciting to see this poem grow, week by week like a bonsai, and the interest of our server members along with it, as renga has suddenly become a thing on the Block that is there for everyone to get involved with.

As I write this, we’ve started our second renga and it’s clear to see by the number of entries we had for the first day, that people are enjoying it. So if you’re reading this and you’d like to get involved, or just want to come and workshop with a fun, warm but serious writing community, then pop by and introduce yourself. We’d love to have you with us.

@damianjayclay

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Renga began life in Japan as a game, a break from the serious business of composing waka (classical Japanese poetry). Later, when it too became more serious, many poets rebelled and created renku, an even more playful and lighthearted version of renga. Play, fun, and not taking ourselves too seriously have been at the core of renga since. It is in that sense that we have created our own renga play area at The Writers’ Block.

Our first renga at the Block is now completed. Every step of the way we all had a blast creating it. This was result of the writing community on Steemit coming together and just having a lot of fun creating a poem together. I think the final result speaks for itself.

If anything of this renga makes you smile, I urge you to visit the Block and try your hand at writing a verse of the next renga. In the meantime, let's congratulate everyone who had a verse chosen, and I want to thank everyone who participated. Thank you! I can't wait to see what's next!

@dbooster

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Because @anikekirsten won the hokku (the first verse), she won the right to choose the charity that will receive the SBD payout of this post. Her chosen charity is @tarc, an animal rescue located in a poverty-stricken area of Appalachia. The funds will be used to feed and provide vet care to dumped or neglected dogs while arrangements are made to find them homes through rescues in areas with less problems with pet overpopulation.

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Interested in joining in our collaborative poem or learning more about haiku, renga, and other poetry forms? Click our logo to check out The Writers' Block discord server.